Reviewer Namta Gupta:
Namta is a senior journalist based in New Delhi, India and has been
covering news in all its form for past 5 years. An MA in English and
Human Rights she is an avid reader and loves every piece of fiction
and non-fiction that she can lay her hands on.

By Namta Gupta

Published on July 30, 2013

Author: Bernadette Pajer

ISBN-10: 1464201285
ISBN-13: 978-1464201288

Publishing house: Poisoned
Pen Press

Author: Bernadette Pajer

ISBN-10: 1464201285
ISBN-13: 978-1464201288

Publishing house: Poisoned
Pen Press

Mystery is a genre that is
liberally attempted but rarely delivered. But then excellent writers
really do have that strength to envisage a plot and furnish it with
aplomb; Bernadette Pajer has done it! That she has done it so deftly
is what makes this book such an enjoyable read. Even minutest of
details has been given such great thought that it makes a reader one
with the characters. The scenic backdrop employed for the gruesome
murder provides the required bone-chilling effect. The investigation
and especially, the dialogues between the characters are so
believable that one feels that they may have come out of the mouth of
just anyone present at the scene.

The writer has nailed it
with the character of Bradshaw; the central character is trapped in
painful past and unable to embrace the brighter side of life.
Bradshaw’s shock on finding his own device at the scene of crime is
the first jolt that Pajer gives and that too when the reader is just
in the process of soaking in the setting of the scene of crime. But
after that his careful deliberations and his conversation with his
able friend and assistant Henry makes for a delightful turn. The
writer has given them great camaraderie and the reader would
eventually fall in love with the two men. But yes, it must be said
that the layering of the character of Bradshaw is the high point of
the book.

His own insecurities and his solitary life after a tragic
incident comes not like a blow but rather like a wound that the
incidents cut open once again. But that does not reduce the other
characters to just mannequins. It goes to the credit of Pajer that
every single character, howsoever minute, holds his own and adds to
the cloud of mystery. Another great thing about the book as a whole
is that every sentence and every word is indispensable. Miss one word
and one would feel lost later; such is the taut writing she has
employed that the length of the book seems apt; neither too long nor
too short.

The fine balance she has
created between technological aspects and readability is again a
great aspect about this book. Not at one single point does a reader
feel belittled by the technological jargon lavishly employed by the
writer.

In all aspects, this is a
great work of literature and anyone with the taste bud of a reader
will do himself a great favor by laying hands on this one.